Welcome and Benvenuti to all my Lovely Followers around the World,
Only in Italy would you hear a story like this, whilst enjoying morning coffee and catching up on the newspapers. Rossella sat down beside us at the long table and sighed. “I have been to Castelfiorentino with some friends from Fiano, to donate blood. We do it every six months.” She was looking a little pale and was feeling tired. “They did not want to take any blood at first, because my blood pressure was too low. So they gave me a strong coffee and told me to rest for a while.” I thought I had heard her right, only in Italy would they serve up strong coffee to raise one’s blood pressure! Anyway it worked and Rossella was able to give blood after a short rest! Amazing, I thought, so the Italians weren’t joking when they have said to me, do not have your pressure checked after drinking coffee! As other donors joined us, my (English) man was pleased to tell the story about his having had a blood transfusion last year and how it had improved his Italian no end! Ha, Ha….. Check out the fabulous Tony Hancock (above – foto expresso.uk) in The Blood Donor sketch on You Tube, you’ll love it. Youtube
Anyway, another of my man’s endearing peculiarities is his ability to give tourists directions to their holiday locations and send them off in entirely the wrong direction. Our gate bell rang yesterday and he found a German family clutching an address, which he was pretty sure of. Keep in mind that the local commune has changed the addresses of numerous properties in our area, including our own, so nothing comes up correctly on SatNav! And, we have been in this area for 15 years and do know the original names of streets and villages. Anyway, off they went, but to my man’s amazement, a little while later he spotted said German car going down the track right next to us, to the property we call ‘The Blot on The Landscape’. He grabbed his binos and could not believe it when he saw the Germans get out, be greeted and shown into the Blot. “That’s ridiculous, there is no way that the Blot’s address is right next door to us! I feel awful now, having sent them off on a wild goose chase.” But really, how is anyone supposed to know how to find places when the Commune has made such a terrible botch up of things. We only get our post because the postman/lady knows where we are! The Blot is the white house in the middle distance in the foto, behind our house
OK, enough of that. It’s yet another beautiful Sunday morning in Tuscany, we cannot complain. And, on a much brighter note, I noticed in the paper that the music scene is hotting up again. We have The Chemical Brothers in Livorno and Mark Knopfler in Pisa both within an easy drive.
Our local village of Fiano is also gearing up for a lively weekend. A celebration of gastronomy including the Sagra del Pollo Fritto, that’s festival of fried chicken to you and me – yes really, the Italians celebrate anything and everything at least once a year! Also, a photographic exhibition recording Fiano between 1919 and 1945 and lots of great local music. So, Fiano is definitely the place to be this weekend!
Did I mention that our lovely friend John, also known as The Bare Guitarist, gave me a gorgeous Stretton Payne Guitar for my birthday, especially so that I can learn to play with a much more forgiving instrument than my beautiful Fender, which must now wait until I am more proficient. I am delighted to have successfully completed my first on-line introduction to the guitar and can now fit the shoulder strap on! I stood in front of my long mirror ‘wearing’ it and it looks good. The next lesson will be learning to tune it. I’ll keep you posted.
Well, enough for now as I am already behind with posting this blog. Have a great week and do drop me a line either at the bottom of this page or at june.finnigan@virgin.net. I love to hear from you!
Salute June x
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